Streaked Fingerprints
by Alaskada
Summary: AU. Christopher Jacobson is a witch trying to keep his head above water. As a forensic scientist, he's constantly having his time taken up with work. With suspicious demon behaviour and a trail of serial killings, his past that he wants to forget about being discovered and a family of witches who want to "help", he's having a hard time staying afloat.
1. Prologue

**Streaked Fingerprints,**

**Prologue**

Chris yawned as he walked through the door. Throwing his keys onto the hall table, he sighed softly.

"Logan? You home?" He called out, walking in to the kitchen. When he had no answer, he sighed once more.

There was a note on the bench, and Chris walked over, reading that his brother had gone out and would be home sometime the next day. Crunching the note up in his hand, the man walked over to the fridge, pulling out a beer.

Turning around, expecting to see nothing out of the usual, Chris let out a surprised gasp as a demon filled his vision. The first thought to come into his mind was that the demon was pretty damn ugly. His second thought was that he really did not want to deal with a demon after a sixteen hour day of work.

The twenty-six year old frowned, slicing his hand through the air and watched as the demon smashed into the wall, disorienting it. Taking the chance while it was down, Chris closed his eyes, focusing on the demons mind. Smashing through its mental walls with little mercy, he searched for an answer of why the demon was here. Finding no reasonable explanation, he found the core of the demon's mind and mentally attacked it. He was forcefully pushed out of the demon's mind when he had destroyed the core. Gasping, eyes flicking open, he watched the demon's corpse disappear with no remorse.

He figured it was just a low-level demon, coming here with the intent of pleasing its master. It didn't take him long to destroy its mind, meaning that it was weak and had no true power, but he was wary. Demons had rarely ever showed up around him, and when they did, it was in a large group with intent to capture him or his brother, not to piss him off.

Shaking his head, he glanced towards the clock. 8:45. He was exhausted. He had been called in at four in the morning, and had been on his feet almost all day. It was apparent that there was a serial killer on the loose, and Chris, who had the day off and had made plans, had to come into work and help deal with it. He still had no idea who was causing these crimes, and he was sure he was in for another long day tomorrow.

Beer forgotten, the man was ready to retire for the night and head for the bed that was calling him, he groaned as his phone started to ring. Pulling it out of his pocket and glancing at the display, he answered.

"Lieutenant Morris," He greeted warmly. Darryl Morris, after moving back from the East Coast with his family several years, had struck up a bond with Chris after working with him several times on cases. "What can I do for you?"

"Chris," There was a brief moment of silence between the men. "Are you busy tomorrow?"

"Why, Darryl, are you asking me out on a date? You know I don't date married men." Chris teased lightly, before answering seriously. "Probably at work all day, again." While Chris didn't groan, he was positive that he had sounded slightly whiny. His suspicions were confirmed when the other man chuckled.

"Long day?" Darryl asked, knowingly, and Chris could picture a soft yet teasing smile on the older man's face.

"You have no idea. I got called in at four this morning and just got home."

"Damn, that sucks." There was another moment of silence before Chris sighed.

"What are you after, Darryl? You didn't ask me what I was doing for small talk." He said, rolling his eyes slightly at the man's huffed laugh.

"No, you're right. So, there are some friends of mine. Witches, like yourself, and they've been having some suspicious demon behaviour, and while they don't need any help, they would like to meet up with another witch to discuss things."

"And you suggested me." Chris said dryly before continuing. "Listen, Darryl, I'll try my hardest, but I'm run off my feet. I might get some time tomorrow in my lunch break to discuss things, or maybe when I get home from work, but I have no idea how late that will be. The best I can offer is that they haul ass and get here right now or get them to call me sometime."

There was silence.

"Don't you dare tell them to haul ass and get here. I'm so tired at the moment that I'd probably end up falling asleep in the middle of a conversation. They'd end up thinking that I had died or something."

Darryl chuckled. "Get some sleep, Kid. I'll discuss it with you tomorrow."

"Goodnight Darryl." Chris said tiredly before hanging up. Trekking the rest of the way to his bedroom, he toed off his shoes before falling onto his bed, not bothering to change into his pyjamas, and almost immediately fell asleep.

* * *

When Chris awoke, he knew it was too early for him to get up and to go to work. A quick glance at his clock confirmed this. He quieted down for a second to see if he could hear the source of what had caused him to wake up. He heard light footsteps, and he cursed softly. He swore on his life if that was another demon, he would make it's vanquish slow and painful.

Standing, the witch quietly crept towards the source of the noise. Once he had found the room that he was sure the noise was coming from, he clicked his fingers, a flame illuminating the place. His eyes adjusted immediately, and he watched as a figure faded from view, and he sighed, extinguishing the flame and turning on the lights.

"Logan." Chris said, sounding exhausted. The figure that had disappeared faded back into view.

"Hi, Chris." The teen said, sounding almost nervous, and Chris would never admit to the slight pain that it had caused him. "Did I wake you?"

"Yeah." He sighed. "It's fine." He glanced down to the watch adorning his left arm. "It's almost three, I would've gotten a phone call soon enough. Why are you home so late?"

"Well, I wasn't going to come home in the first place, but I realised I had work today at nine, and I probably wouldn't have enough time to get ready and go."

"Why didn't you just take today off? You're only part-time, I'm sure they could have found someone to cover you." Chris said, scrubbing at his face and yawning.

"Used up too much sick leave. That and I need to actually attend work to get paid. What time did you get home?"

Chris smirked at the conversation change. He knew Logan was anxious about Chris getting angry at him over little things, and it was amusing to see that his brother thought he was that uptight, but it hurt at the same time. It reminded Chris of when he was in his teens and had been anxious about his father getting angry. He'd never be like his father, and especially not towards Logan.

"Around eight forty-ish. Had a demon in here when I got home. No idea why, it didn't attack me or anything, hadn't gone for the book and it was easy enough to vanquish, but just keep an eye out, okay?"

"Will do. Okay, I'm going to bed. I take it I won't see you in the morning?"

Chris shook his head. "Probably not. It's flat out at work at the moment."

Logan nodded. "Fair enough. I get off at four tomorrow. Text me when you have your lunch break. I'll see if I can meet up with you."

The younger of the two made his way to his bedroom without another word, and Chris sighed, walking into his own room. Pulling his phone that had been put in his pocket hours before out, he set it on the bedside table.

Pulling off his shirt and throwing it into the washing basket, Chris looked down at his chest, eyes tracing the thin, faded white scars that adorned it. He swallowed and fought back memories. He quickly found a new shirt and pulled it over the top. Frowning down at his jeans, he figured that they looked clean enough and would be acceptable to wear another day. Yawning, he slid his phone back into his pocket, ran his fingers through his hair as a makeshift comb and ventured out of his bedroom and into the kitchen.

Being so early in the morning, he had no appetite, but he knew he would be called in soon, and he had to eat. He knew several people who would kill him if he managed to slip back into his old habits. Grabbing an apple out of the fruit bowl, he figured it'd be enough until he managed to get out to lunch or persuade one of the rookies to go get him food.

Taking a bite out of the apple, Chris sighed, letting his mind wander to the past day to see if he could think of something he missed. He knew that it took longer than a day to figure out who a serial killer was, but it was frustrating the man. He knew that there was something not right about this, even more not right than a serial killer on the loose.

Being pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of his phone ringing, he quickly fished it out of his pocket, not bothering to look at the caller I.D, he answered.

"Yeah?"

"We need you to come in, again." His co-worker's voice came over the phone, and Chris smirked playfully.

"Oh, Abigail." He said, mock hurt, "You sound like you don't want to see me."

"Of course, I want to see you. I'm just frustrated that I've been dragged out of my nice warm bed to call you and most likely wake you up to tell you that you have to get to work, and then me, myself, having to go to work too."

"If it helps, you didn't wake me up." Chris offered. "Logan apparently isn't very good at stealth when it comes to three in the morning."

Abigail laughed softly, "I'll see you at work, Chris." She said, and hung up.

Sliding his phone into his pocket once more, he threw the half-finished apple into the bin and walked outside, stopping only for a moment to grab his keys.

The warm early morning breeze was nice as he walked out to his car, and helped him wake up enough to feel confident to drive and not die from falling asleep from the wheel.

As he slid into the car, he softly murmured to himself that it would be another long day.

* * *

Arriving at work at the same time as Abigail, Chris walked over to her car, waiting patiently as she fished her handbag out of the boot.

"Good Morning, Abby." He greeted the British woman warmly, smiling softly at her as they started to walk towards their work.

"Good morning my ass, it's a Saturday. I should be sleeping in and be able to do things with my family today, not work. I have my husband's cousin's wedding today that I was supposed to go to. I don't know her bloody name but I told her that we were coming"

Chris laughed softly. "It sucks, doesn't it? I had plans to go to lunch with my friends today. I haven't seen most of them in months and I was actually excited about going out. Had to cancel on them yesterday. Figured that we'd be called in."

"Yeah, well. That's life, I suppose." Abby grumbled, glaring at the building that they were approaching.

"Life fucking sucks, doesn't it?" Chris asked, sounding slightly bitter, and Abigail glanced up to him, rarely ever hearing the man sounding bitter. She saw that his eyes weren't focussed properly, and she realised that he was more talking to himself.

She smiled slightly, wondering if that was another clue to the mysterious man she worked with. While Chris was warm and understanding, he rarely ever wanted to talk about the past unless it was about his friends or his brother. It left her thinking what on earth could have happen to Chris.

She had read his file, what information had been collected from him, but it only had the basic details, his full name, Christopher Perry Jacobson. His birthday, 17th of November, 2003. His brother's name, Logan James Jacobson. His parents, Paul Christian Jacobson and Lauren Eve Jacobson who had both been deceased for almost nine years, dying in a car crash that had killed the both of them instantly. Beyond that, she didn't know much about him, she knew the basics. She knew that he was a big fan of classic cars, his favourite colour was silver, and his favourite band was Asking Alexandria. She knew all his favourite movies and books, what he did in his spare time, but she knew absolutely nothing of his past.

Abigail Baileys was a determined woman, who was also very curious. It was frustrating that she had worked with Chris for almost five years but still knew barely anything about him. The man was a walking mystery and she had made it her goal to figure him out.

She wanted to know Christopher Perry Jacobson's past, and she would stop at nothing to find out. She loved Chris like another one of her sons. She was forty three and had the maternal instinct that most women seemed to acquire around that age. She considered Chris as one of her closest friends, and she wanted to know more.

She was curious, and she was determined to uncover his secret, but she had no idea how to go about it. She had discovered that the man clammed up tightly whenever she tried to figure him out. She didn't know how to make it seem like she was only doing it in a friendly way.

As they entered the building, a thought struck her. Chris was extremely close to Logan, and who else would know Chris better than his own brother.

Logan looked up to Abigail, had adopted her as a second mother even, and she figured it wouldn't be that hard to get the information out of him.

Abigail was broken out of her thoughts as Chris spoke. "Ready for another long day, Abby?" He asked, green eyes full of warmth, and she smiled,

"I guess I am." She said, feigning exhaustion.

"Come on then." He said, with a heart warming smile that Abigail was sure he could make a few girls faint with, and held the door open for her to go in.

The rest of the work team looked up sleepily at their arrival, and Abby smirked, clapping her hands loudly, the sound sharp, making many co-workers flinch.

"Wake up, we've got work to do." She said, and at their groans, she heard a chuckle from Chris. It appeared that he was in an extremely good mood today, and whenever he was in an extremely good mood, it always seemed to be a good day. The man had a way of projecting his emotions onto other people.

"Great!" She exclaimed when they looked a little more lively. Her previous mood of not wanting to go to work was replaced. "Well, come on then! We've got murders to solve!"


	2. One

**Chapter One**

* * *

There were many things that Wyatt Halliwell was proud of. Going to University and getting a degree in teaching was one. Being the most powerful witch in existence was another. He was not proud, however, to say that he was almost twenty eight and was living with his parents.

After becoming serious with his long-term girlfriend Alex, he had lived with her for close to five years, when he had decided to ask her to marry her. Apparently, she wasn't interested in getting married. So, after a messy break-up, he had moved back into the old family home.

Walking into the manor, he dropped his keys into the bowl on the kitchen table. "Anyone home?" He called.

"In the kitchen!" His mother called, and he smirked. Of course his mother would be in the

kitchen. Walking in, he saw his aunts sitting at the table, his mother in the kitchen, obviously cooking something delicious. The surprise was Darryl Morris sitting at the end of the table, engaged in a talk.

Wyatt hadn't seen the man in many years, the older of the two becoming more busy with work and making time for his family, and whenever the man seemed to have time to see them, Wyatt happened to be busy or needed for something.

"Darryl!" Wyatt greeted warmly. The Lieutenant stood, smiling at the blonde. Giving him a 'man-hug,' Darryl laughed softly.

"How've you been kid?" He asked, his tone was warm.

"Busy would be a good word to use." Wyatt said, sighing. "Because it's so close to the holidays, I've been flat-out. The joys of being a high-school teacher."

"You're not the only one who has been busy." Darryl commented. "Works been tiring for me. I know a forensic scientist. He had a sixteen hour day yesterday. And he has the same today."

"Is this the witch that you were telling us about?" Phoebe asked, smiling at Wyatt as her nephew looked at her. "Wyatt." She greeted.

Wyatt nodded, a soft smile on his face. "Aunt Phoebe, Aunt Paige."

"Yeah, he is. I called him this morning. He said he should get some time tomorrow to meet up with you. If he can't, he'll send his brother around to talk to you instead."

Paige nodded thoughtfully. "Two questions about this witch." She said, "What's his name, and what powers does he have?"

"I probably should have already told you guys that in the first place. His name is Christopher Jacobson. He'll probably yell at you if you call him Christopher though. To be honest, I'm not sure about his powers. I know his brother can turn invisible. It's something you'll have to ask him. I've never bothered. It's hard to get information out of Chris when he doesn't want to, I doubt that he would want to give me a list of his powers, and frankly, I don't really want to know."

"Fair enough." Piper said, coming out of the kitchen with a plate of freshly baked cookies, "Hi, Sweetie," She smiled kindly. "How was your day?"

"It was good. Tiring."

"That's life for you. It wouldn't be bringing in any good money if it wasn't hard." Piper said dryly.

"Unfortunately, talking about work," Darryl said, "I should head back. It's been busy at work."

"I should go too. I'll end up getting fired." Paige remarked, standing at the same time as Darryl.

"Talk to you later, guys. I'll let you know when Chris is certain he knows when he can meet up."

"Bye guys." The three remaining chorused together as Paige and Darryl walked out together.

Wyatt sat down at the table, looking to the two eldest females in the family. "So, what do you know of this witch so far?"

"Well," Phoebe started, "I think Leo will know more, because, you know, he knows everything. I think he's digging stuff up on him as we speak. But Darryl told us that he's a smart kid. Apparently he's a bit of a mystery though, refuses to speak about his past. He's a forensic scientist, twenty six years old. Younger brother, I think Darryl said he was about eighteen. I don't think there's anything else."

"Okay." Wyatt said. "Two questions. One, what exactly is Dad trying to dig up? I mean, he's not an elder anymore, which means he can't just, well, know. And two, why exactly are we meeting up with him? I mean, we're the Charmed One's, we don't need his help, and he hasn't requested for ours."

"Your father is seeing if he can dig up a file. All witches have a file made on them now, safety concerns. Just has their basic powers, what they can do, all the basic stuff that we need to know." Piper said, "Even Grams has one, it's just a safety precaution so if a witch tries to take over the world, other witches know what they're up against."

"And the answer to you second question is that, the kid is only twenty six years old, working a fairly hectic job, all while keeping his younger brother safe and out of trouble, and he has to deal with demon attacks. We want to keep an eye on him, because Darryl said he also has a habit of working himself into the ground. We just want to make sure he doesn't get killed." Phoebe added soothingly. "We've not had very many deaths these past years, and demon activity is very suspicious these days."

It was then that Wyatt had realised that he had sounded like an indignant teenaged girl asking why the boy they liked didn't like them back He was almost twenty eight. There was no need for him to be whiny or bitching over small matters. He was a man, not a teenager, and especially not a girl.

Sighing, he simply said "Okay." He grabbed a cookie off the plate, because he was still a man and men definitely eat cookies, because cookies were manly, goddamit. "I'm going to the gym." He told the two women before heading up to his room to change.

After a quick change, he had left the manor and started making his way towards the gym he frequented at. Wyatt wasn't a vain person, but he would say that his regular trips to the gym had definitely improved his muscles since high school. He could easily say that his weight was made up of pure muscle and not be lying.

As he started working out, he let his mind wander to the witch. He was intrigued. The other witch had sounded interesting. It would be interesting for Wyatt to meet him. He hadn't met very many other males witches, and especially not his age, both always being either much older than Wyatt himself, or much younger. His younger cousin, Henry Junior, while being another male in the family, he was still ten years older than Wyatt and they were almost complete opposites.

He just hoped that this 'Chris' would be someone worth meeting.

* * *

Chris sighed as he glanced at the clock. It was close to seven at night. Yawning softly, he glanced towards Abigail, who was almost asleep at her desk. Work had been extremely tiring today, and he still was no closer to solving the case. Most of his team had gone home, only three of the seven, not including Chris, staying back. They had given up with being formal with work about an hour and a half ago. Jaime, who was only a few months older than Chris, was multitasking. The man was using his phone while watching security videos from when the murders had been committed. After several watches of the video and not finding anything, Jaime had given up and pulled out his phone. Abigail was meant to be going over a report package, but had soon started to fall asleep at her desk, and no one had the heart to wake her up. The other person, Tyler, a thirty three year old man, who was friendly and energetic, had taken to drawing on the piece of paper he was supposed to be taking notes on, and had taken three before giving up.

Chris himself, had pictures he was supposed to be scanning for any clues on what had happened, but after the fourth time, he too, had found himself playing with his phone. Glancing up to where Jaime was, he saw a flash in the corner of the recording.

"Jaime, pause that, and slow it down to one frame a second." He said, walking over to the screen and leaning over the over man's shoulder. Jaime doing the things that Chris had told him to do, saw the flash and paused it. "You see that?" Chris pointed to the screen, "It looks like a large dog. Perhaps a pitbull?"

"Possibly, it could be just a random dog passing through though. But it does explain the murders in some way. There's no fingerprints, throats torn out and gashes that look like claws. But, as far as I know, dogs don't have that large of claws that fit the gashes. And there should be some form of saliva. But it definitely is a dog." Jaime said.

Tyler had walked over by now, peering at the screen with them. "Large dog. I would say wolf would fit the description, but what the hell would a wolf be doing in San Francisco?"

"Possibly escaped from the zoo." Jaime commented. "I'll check with the zoos near by to see if a wolf has escaped. Although, I think it would have been on the news by now."

"I think we have to stay a little longer tonight." Chris murmured tiredly, the want for his bed increasing. "Possibly an all-nighter. Someone wake Abby."

As Tyler went over to wake up Abigail, Chris zoomed in on the dog-like creature. "It appears to be short hair. We'll need to go to the crime scene tomorrow to look for any traces of fur or paw prints that we may have missed. Start on the other video footage and look for anything the looks remotely like this."

"Sometimes, I wonder why we hired you, but then you have your moments where you catch something that we all miss, and then I remember." Abigail commented tiredly. "As the person in charge at the moment, I do say we might to pull an all-nighter, but I say we should take advantage of the showers they have here. Chris and Jaime you guys go for showers and Tyler and I will go after you two."

"Okay." Jaime said, as the two youngest in the room walked over to the cupboard, where all the towels had been kept. All the towels had been kept clean and sanitary, getting dry-cleaned after each use. The two took a few towels each and walked into the lobby, where the bathrooms were kept.

There were four showers and five toilets and the bathroom had been designed like the locker room at Chris's old school.

As Chris stood under the hot spray of the water, he felt the stress start to leave his shoulders. While the showers were rarely used, they were all kept in perfect condition. The shower was almost as good as the one at home. Leaning his shoulder against the wall and slumping, he sighed. He heard Jaime echo his sigh, and smirked. The water was nice. Feeling exhausted, he turned the water to cold. He flinched and shivered and closed his eyes. He had only a few minutes before the water turned off, and he wanted to try to wake himself up.

Getting only a few hours sleep the night before, and pulling an all-nighter was not something he had done since his insomnia had stopped effecting him so much. In the back of his mind, he wondered if this unusual sleep pattern would make the insomnia flare back up again.

As the water turned off, he quickly dried off and got dressed, feeling more refreshed, and a quick glance to Jaime had said the same about the other man. Throwing the wet towels into a basket, Chris ran a hand through his wet hair, waiting for Jaime before the two walked back to the workstation.

Tyler and Abigail were in a conversation, which seemed more like an argument. "If it were a dog," Abigail said, "There would be more evidence, dogs aren't creatures that leave no traces of anything."

"Yes," Tyler stressed the word, "But, we need to go from every angle, and you trust Chris, and Chris is a valued member of our team. You know he might have something here. You know that Chris could be right, and you know that we need to check it out."

"He's right, Abby." Jaime said, "Chris is right more than he's wrong, and we might have something here. We have to check it out, at least to cross it off of our list. It is plausible."

Abigail sighed. "Okay, we can check it out, but I do doubt that it was a dog. Dogs don't just go rabid and start murdering people, even with pitbulls. They may have a terrible reputation, but they're not going to tear someone's throat out."

"Abby, just because it's not likely, doesn't means it's not true." Chris said, "Just because it seems like it won't happen doesn't mean it can't. I know you're tired, we all are, but we have to explore every possibility. You know that." His eyes were warm as they met with Abigail's.

"I know, you're right. Ugh, I just want to go back to a normal ten hour day, instead of, you know, sixteen hours, and all-nighters. One of us is going to collapse soon, and I don't want to waste time on a theory that may not be correct." She said softly. "Chris, you've collapsed from overworking yourself before, and Logan was terrified. He thought he was going to lose you, and you're really the only person he has left. It was heartbreaking to watch him so distressed."

"Then we take shifts." Tyler input, "One of us take a day off to relax, come back for another person to take the day off. There's eight of us, we'll work closer together and try to take the strain off of each other. I mean, we're the half that obviously works harder than the others, for instance, tonight, so us four will take the first four days off. Abby, you should take tomorrow off, and Tyler, you next. You guys are the ones with kids and partners to go home to."

"And you should take the day after that off. You've got your siblings waiting at home for you, and I'm sure your uncle wants some time off too, instead of watching his nieces and nephews. I've only got Logan to go home to, and he's busy until Tuesday anyway."

"Chris." Abigail said, her tone was warning and she started to speak before Chris cut her off. "Abby. For starters, I'm the youngest in the group, even if it is by a few months, and I can stay up for much longer than an average human, you know that. And, of course I'm still going home to sleep. Just don't argue with me on this, okay?"

Abigail sighed, defeated. "Okay. But, at least six hours sleep. And tonight, we'll all take turns in sleeping, forty five minutes worth of sleep each, in a cycle, and because Chris is last to take the day off, he can be the first to sleep." She had a satisfied smirk on her face that meant that she had won, and there was no way to get out of it. "Then Jaime, and then Tyler, and then myself." She nodded to herself, and the two other men nodded back.

Chris sighed, but he couldn't say that he didn't want the sleep, even after the shower. The comfortable looking couch in the corner was calling for him, and he wasn't going to say no. As Abigail and Tyler left for showers and in the search of bringing back caffeine, he wandered over to the couch.

His eyes took in the room, and even though he had the room memorized, he quickly regarded where everything was. His eyes were directed to the presence of Jaime, who had gone back to the surveillance tapes and was now watching them in slow motion. He felt in his mind for any other presences in the building, and was satisfied when he could only sense the cleaner and his three co-workers. He let himself relax, and laying against the couch, it was all he could do not to moan in comfort as his muscles loosened up.

It didn't take him long to fall asleep, he had fallen asleep before Abigail and Tyler got back from their showers, but had briefly awoken when the two had arrived. He felt Abigail sit on the arm of the couch and softly run her fingers through his hair. He almost immediately fell back asleep, the motherly gesture reminding him of his own mother who had done the same thing many times through his childhood and teenage years when he couldn't sleep.

For a moment, he felt safer than he had in a long while.

The night had passed in a slow crawl. After Chris had been awoken at eight fifteen, he had quickly searched for his phone and sent Logan a message telling his younger brother that he wouldn't be home tonight. The answer was almost immediate.

_Y?_ Chris smirked at his phone, and even though he was supposed to be working, and phones were not supposed to be out while working, he quickly tapped out another message.

We think we might have something. _I'll call you tomorrow morning when I'm leaving work, we can meet up for breakfast_.

He left his phone unlocked on the desk he was working at. It was now Jaime who was sleeping, and apparently, he was a heavy sleeper. Chris smirked once more, this time directed at the man on the couch. Apparently Jaime chewed his thumbnail in his sleep, and it made the man look a lot younger than twenty six, but like a child.

His phone vibrated with a message, and quickly glancing at it, he rolled his eyes at Logans '_k'_. Quickly changing from messaging to his camera, he took a picture of Jaime. It was definitely Facebook worthy. He met Abigail's mock disapproving glare with a look of pure innocence. Locking his phone and sliding it into his pocket, he took a sip of his coffee, and almost moaned in bliss.

Turning away from his laptop screen, he turned to the set of rules that Abigail had put up several years ago and smirked at it. The rules were ridiculous, such as 'No hitting each other with soda bottles.'

The rule had been made when Tyler, Jaime, himself and two other co-workers, Amy and Grace had all pulled all-nighters together. They had several bottles of soda each, and the sleep deprivation had gotten to them soon enough. So when Jaime had aimed his soda bottle for the bin and ended up with hitting Chris in the back of the head, the only logical thing in Chris's mind was to beat Jaime up with one of his own soda bottles. It had soon turned into a soda bottle war between the five of them, and it was a fond memory, the room had been loud with mock-anger, laughing and excitement. Once Abigail and the other two co-workers, Ashley and Riley, who had both recently joined, Ashley a few months before, and Riley a week before, had returned to the lab to see the five beating each other senseless with soda bottles.

Their reactions to them had been hilarious. Riley was confused, and Ashley had been smirking at their antics, the girl having already gotten used to them. Abigail had been the one who had stolen Tyler's empty soda and hit them all around the back of the head with it. The memory was a fond one, and it had been worth all the bruising the next day.

Another was no feathered pillows in the lab. Only a few months back, Riley had decided that when they pulled all nighters, they needed pillows, because, the man, who Chris would say was eight feet tall, who was really only 6"3, had said that the arm of the couch dug into his neck, but he didn't have enough room to curl up comfortably.

Being a bunch of kids in adults bodies, the pillows weren't used for sleeping but smothering each other with. While the joke had lived on for several months or more, the best part was when they had all started pillow fighting, and pillows had all smacked together at once in some bizarre way, and had caused an explosion of feathers, all over the lab. It was not a fun clean up.

There was one in bold, and that one was directed at Jaime and Chris. The two men were close and shared the same interests. One of which were Nerf Guns. Chris, who was slim and who was a fantastic hider, had found a way into the air vents, and had found the air vent that was directly across from the door. Together, Jaime and Chris had removed the grate over the air vent and found Jaime a spot to snipe from. The two had come to work early and set up their arsenal of Nerf Guns. However, they didn't realise that a very, very important man was coming to see the work that they had been doing, and would possibly help sponsor the lab to get better equipment.

As soon as the door had opened, the two had opened fire. They had eventually ran out of bullets and both had dropped from their hiding place, to see that the man who was supposed to sponsor them, had been among their team. Fortunately, the man was good natured about it and had laughed it off, and sponsored them enough for each of them to receive a work laptop with the newest software of all the programs they needed.

The rule was that no Nerf Guns or anything of the like were to ever enter the building.

Chris rolled his eyes and turned back to his work. He was going over the report that Abigail had fallen asleep on before and in the top right hand corner, had the security feeds up in slow motion. He hadn't found anything of interest in the reports yet, but there had been the same flash of shadow in the corner in all the videos.

It was tedious, and when it hit three am and he had already had too many naps for him to sleep again, he had scanned the video with hawkeyes, watching every part of the scene. Soon enough, he had seen something in all the videos that matched up with a bottle. A man, seemingly drunk, dropping a bottle of beer before wandering off, was in each of the videos, at the exact same time, and only a few seconds later, the dog-like creature had appeared in the corner.

He had started taking notes around eleven, and he now had four pages worth of notes and theories to share with his entire team when they were next together.

Cracking his neck, he scanned the report again, and yet, still found nothing. There were the basics, but Chris needed to look at the body to see if any of his theories matched up. He had the pictures of the victims up on his laptop screen, but it wasn't clear enough around the wounds for any of them to work out. The gashes that they knew the victims had were blurry, and seemed blue in the pictures, but when Chris had looked at the body in real life several days before, he knew that the wounds were black.

Shaking his head, Chris peered around the room. No one was sleeping, and while they were all quiet, they all seemed energetic, which Chris knew would crash soon, and they'd all be zombies.

It was five am before anyone actually spoke, and it was Jaime, who had started a game of The Hypothetical Game. Some of the questions had kept them thinking, questions such as "If a man was to play golf during a thunderstorm, what would the damage done to you be?" The answer that they had all concluded together was that because men are four times more likely to get hit by lightning, and waving a metal object around would just attract the electricity, the man would mostly get struck, but with the fact that only twenty percent of people get struck dead by lightning immediately, the man wouldn't die straight away, but be fatally wounded, and would need medical assistance right away, but there was a very likely chance of him dying from the after effects, such a heart attack.

They had played the game until it had hit seven in the morning, and that's when they all called quits for the day. They would leave Ashley, Riley, Grace and Amy to take care of things today, and would leave Amy in charge.

As Chris walked towards his car, he had gotten a call from Darryl, and sighed.

"Hey. If you want me to do anything, I refuse." He said in a way of greeting, and he heard Darryl chuckle over the line.

"Working today?" Darryl asked.

"I've got today off, had to pull an all-nighter. I'm about to call Logan and meet up with him for breakfast and go curl up in bed. But by the sounds of it, you want me to meet up with those girls today, don't you?"

"You know me so well, Kid." Darryl said dryly.

"Okay, let me go for breakfast with Logan, get a quick nap, go for a shower and I'll call you back to let you know when I can come." He said tiredly.

"Okay Kid, don't strain yourself." The older man said fondly before hanging up.

Chris quickly dialled his brothers number as he slid into the car, playing with the car keys. When the kid had answered, he greeted his brother before telling him that he'd be picking him up in a few minutes. After hanging up, he started the car up and started for home.

He had a feeling that today would be busy.

* * *

**Author's Note: I would like to point out that this is four thousand, four hundred and twenty-two words written while I was sleep deprived and no beta-ing. All mistakes are my own and I do apologise for them and will fix them up as soon as I find them. Also, thank you to anyone who reviewed, favourited or followed.**


	3. Two

Chapter Two

* * *

Chris was, in the most simplest forms, exhausted. As soon as he had finished breakfast with Logan, his energy had crashed and had left him dragging. Logan, while he had been amused, was definitely worried about his brother.

Brushing off his younger brother's worried, as soon as Chris had walked through the door of their small house, had gone into his bedroom, and mindless of the German Shepherd residing at the bottom of the bed, threw himself down into it. The German Shepherd, or Carrow, grunted his annoyance before crawling up next to his master, curling into his side.

Chris let his fingers twist in the dogs fur, closing his eyes and going over his theories. He was thinking that the suspicious demon activity might have something to do with it, but he couldn't exactly tell his team that. It wouldn't end up well at all, the only likely person to believe him was Jaime, who was also a witch.

Sighing, he felt for any other presences in the house, only picking up Logan's and Carrow's. He allowed himself to relax.

* * *

It wasn't long that Chris been asleep before he was woken up by a phone call, and with a grunt of annoyance, and answered the phone, not bothering to see who was calling.

"This had better be good." He almost growled, rubbing his eyes like a young child with one hand.

"Chris." It was Jaime.

"Jay, there better be a good reason as to why you're calling." Chris warned,

"Have you been attacked by any demons recently?" The man didn't sound concerned, but just curious.

"Not attacked, as such. There was one here the other day, it was easy enough to vanquish, low level. It wasn't going for the book, it was just there. Why?"

"I was thinking that the case might be a demon. I mean, as Abby said last night, it just seems unlikely that a dog would do such brutal killing like that, even one that's gone rabid. To me, something just doesn't seem to fit." Jaime confessed.

"I was thinking along the same lines, to be honest. I mean dogs aren't like that, not even rescue dogs. I saved Carrow from demons that had terrible intentions towards him, and he was vicious, but not to such an extent of ripping throats out. But I don't know of any demons that take the shape of a dog, or even resemble a dog."

Jaime hummed in agreement. "I can't think of any that come to mind. I'll probably go to magic school later today to check out a few books. Did you want to come with me?"

"Depends what time. I've got to meet up with some people some time today, probably sometime in the next two hours. What's the time now?"

"Fifteen past ten. I'll pick you up at four, does that work?"

"Yeah, that'll do." Chris said, fighting back a sigh. "Alright, I've got to go. Bye." He hung up without waiting for his friend's reply. Sitting up, he huffed in annoyance. All he wanted to do was sleep on his day off, but apparently that wasn't going to happen.

He stood up and stretched, rotating his neck back and forth until the bone popped. Yawning, he absently thought that it was going to be yet another long day.

* * *

"So, I did some digging around in Magic School," Leo said, after Paige had orbed the two of them into the Manor's lounge room. "and I found that Christopher Jacobson, as it seems, is three-quarters witch, and the other quarter is unknown. He has a few powers listed, telekinesis appears to be his main power."

Leo sat on the arm of the couch that Wyatt was sitting on, and glanced to Piper. "He has some kind of mind power, it's almost like mind control and telepathy combined. He can search your mind and find out everything you know. The other parts of this power seems to be weak though, and only works on lower-level demons or anything less powerful, but he can make people do things, and he can find the core of the mind, and can 'attack' it to destroy the mind and kill the said person. He has sensing, which could be linked to the telepathy and can be considered a sub-power. Other than that, there's not much else."

"Darryl told us on the phone the other day that he's virtually married to his career, it's his basically his life. He doesn't use his witch side for anything but demons, anything else and he'll do it the mortal way. His brother and his work are his two biggest priorities." Paige told the group.

"So, he would prefer not being a witch?" Piper asked, remembering the time where all she had ever wanted was to be mortal, to have never found out about magic. When she had envied her friends for being normal. Now, she realised that was foolish, she now loved being a witch, it was apart of her.

"I'm not sure, to be honest. I would say that he's accepted it, but doesn't appreciate it at face-value." The youngest sister said, frowning slightly. "But Darryl called me this morning to tell me that Chris has the day off, and that he'll be able to meet up with us soon. He said he would call back as soon as Chris tells him what time."

As if Darryl had heard Paige saying that, the phone rang, and Paige smirked at the caller I.D. "Speak of the Devil." She said before answering and putting the call on speaker.

"Good Morning, Darryl." She greeted politely, her tone warm. "You're on speaker, by the way."

The rest of the group took that as their chance to greet Darryl, and he chuckled.

"Good morning. Chris told me that he can meet up in an hour. Does that work for you?" He said, jumping straight into it.

"I think that'll work fine." Phoebe said, nodding along with her own statement. "Is there a certain place that he wants to meet, or did he just want to come here?"

"He said he doesn't mind, but he said that he would appreciate it if the meeting could be quick as possible, because he'd like to get back to sleeping." There was affection in Darryl's tone, and Phoebe smiled. Darryl had obviously taken the younger man under his wing.

"Well, It'd probably be easier here, considering there's five of us and one of him." Piper commented, and there was a hum of agreement from Wyatt.

"I'll tell him that. He'll be over sometime soon." Darryl said before hanging up. Paige shrugged and sat down next to Wyatt.

"The kid just sounds interesting," She said, "I mean, he's got an awesome job and it works him into the ground but he loves it, Darryl said he has a younger brother who Chris doesn't like around other witches, especially male witches, for some bizarre reason, and he's got some kick in powers."

"He does, to be honest." Leo said, nodding. "All witches have a percentage chart of powers. Most witches sit at about fifty to fifty five percent, You three girls sit around eighty five percent, and Wyatt's at ninety five percent when his powers aren't at their full potential. Chris sits at seventy to seventy five percent."

"Wow. Interesting." Piper said at the same time Wyatt asked, "Where do demons sit?"

Leo frowned slightly. "It depends. Most lower level demons are about forty percent, upper level demons can range from anywhere between fifty to eighty percent. The extremely rare demons who are at the same level as Wyatt were either banished or vanquished by a large group of witches."

"So, Chris is pretty powerful, yeah?" Phoebe asked, "Could he be considered a threat in anyway."

"Everyone who you don't trust is a threat, so yes, he could be considered a threat in some way. It's possible that he could catch one of you off guard and invade your mind, but from what I understand, you would be too powerful for him to invade your minds without doing serious damage to himself."

"Okay, that's... reassuring." Paige said, a small frown on her face. "So now we wait for him and hope he won't try to kill us."

* * *

Chris looked up at the large victorian manor, eyes scanning it for any threats. Even though he couldn't see any threats, he sensed and found five presences. He softly nudged one but he found he was forced back before he could find anything that could help him. All he found was a name, which was Phoebe. Chris decided that she was the middle sister that Darryl had told her about.

Sighing, he walked up to the front door and had a slight mental battle with himself, fighting the urge to flee and return home. He sucked it up though and knocked on the door softly. There was shuffling from behind the door and he swallowed back the slight anxiety he felt.

A pleasant looking woman stood at the door, two other women standing behind her, they were quickly joined by two males.

They looked intimidating, all five of them standing in the doorway, and he almost ran, fear being almost crippling. He took an internal deep breath.

"Um," He said, "Is this The Halliwells?" He asked.

"Yes." The one infront said, "You must be Chris, right?"

He nodded, gently probing at their minds again to try to get a feel of their personality. Most of their mental barriers were strong though and forced him out. "Yeah."

"Darryl's told us a lot about you," Said one of the women, "Come inside. I'm Phoebe." She greeted warmly.

Chris nodded, following them into the house and got led into the living room. He quickly took in the room. He was directed into a comfortable armchair. Once everyone else had found their seats, they introduced themselves. Phoebe was the middle sister, Paige the youngest sister, Piper the eldest. The two males were Piper's husband, Leo, and her son, Wyatt.

"So," Chris said, breathing out and looking at the people in the room.

"Okay." Piper said, "We've recently had some weird demon activity, and it's bizarre because we haven't been attacked by them in several years. We just wanted to see if it was happening to another witch."

"A few days ago there was a demon in my house. It was easy enough to get rid of. It didn't even attack me and it didn't appear to be going after The Book or any potions."

"The same with us." Phoebe said. "It's unsettling," She frowned. "I tried to get a reading on them, but I couldn't find any feelings. Demons always seem to have at least one feeling. Evil and Anger are the two most common but I just couldn't pick anything up."

"I interrogated one the other day and I got no answers, even when it was in the crystal cage." Paige said.

"I've not had anyone after me, yet." Wyatt commented. "It makes me uneasy, because they usually go after me, or try to get information on me. All these demons seem to be doing is providing a distraction, but for what?"

"I went through the demons mind the other day. There was nothing there to tell me anything about him. It was only a lower level demon. It'd at least have someone telling it what to do." Chris pointed out.

"I think it would be. Lower level demons rarely work on their own, or they at least work for something." Leo said.

"But who are they working for?" Wyatt asked, raising an eyebrow.

"That is the real question." Paige muttered.

* * *

It was smalltalk for the rest of the time. The family asking about his job, he had answered with "It's tiring, but I love it." to which Paige snorted to. It wasn't long before Chris decided he had to go if he wanted to get more sleep before having to go out to the library.

Wyatt had given Chris his number, the two having become friendly with each other soon enough. Wyatt reminded Chris of an older brother, and Chris was what Wyatt would think having a younger brother would be like. They had both discovered that they were extremely different though. Chris liked any form of rock, metal and punk. Wyatt leaned more to the rap and popular side of music. Wyatt, while he didn't hate his job, didn't like going all the time, Chris, however, loved going to work. They found that they did have the same taste in movies and both agreed that Scary Movie, while everyone else seemed to love it, was a terrible movie.

He got along with the family pretty well. Despite his anxiety of meeting them, they were kind and the three sisters were very motherly towards him. He felt the meeting went okay, and he'd have to call Darryl later to tell him that. The man would otherwise end up calling him and yelling at him for not calling sooner.

He sighed as he worked through the front door. Logan was sitting on the couch in the lounge room, the TV on, but his attention wasn't directed at it. He looked up at Chris as soon as he came in, and Carrow ran straight towards his master. Chris laughed softly and bent down, allowing the dog to give the equivalent of a hug.

"How'd it go?" Logan asked, standing up at the same time as Chris.

"It was good, actually. They made me feel welcome." He said truthfully. Logan smiled, before it dropped off of his face.

"Listen, a few weeks ago, you said you'd take me out to a shelter so we could get another job, and I know you've been busy lately, but I've looked at their website and I've found a few I really want to look at."

Chris could've hit himself about forgetting about that. Logan had been excited, and Chris had to admit, he was too.

"Yeah, okay. We can go now. What's the time?"

"Half past twelve." Logan supplied, and Chris nodded. "Okay." He said, "lets go."

* * *

The shelter was loud with dogs barking and cats meowing. He and Logan had stopped at the cats briefly, just looking to see if they would like to get as well. There was an adorable kitten that Chris was interested in getting, but they came down specifically to get another dog.

Once they reached the kennel, a young, attractive worker came up to the pair.

"Is there anything I can help you with today?" She asked politely, her face held a warm smile, but it was tired.

"We're interested in getting another dog." Chris said.

"Fantastic!" She said, sounding a little bit excited. "Are you after a puppy or an adult?" She asked.

Chris glanced to Logan, who shrugged. "Either works. We're after one that'll get along well with our German Shepherd at home."

"Is the German Shepherd violent?" She asked, frowning slightly.

Chris had to laugh softly, and he felt Logan chuckling next to him. The thought of Carrow being vicious to something that wasn't trying to attack him or his family? Hilarious.

"No," Chris shook his head. "Carrow is extremely friendly. He'll give you hugs every time you get home. We just want to get a friend for him because I work full time and there's not really anyone home during the day."

"Oh, okay." She said, a smile on her face. "I should probably introduce myself though. I'm Sophie."

"Oh, I'm Chris." He said, and Logan introduced himself.

"Well," Sophie started. "For a German Shepherd, you'd want another big dog. How old is the German Shepherd?"

Chris frowned. "I think we got him when he was about two months old, at least that's what the vet said. I rescued him maybe four years ago."

"Rescued?" Sophie asked, a hint of concern in her voice.

"There were a few teenagers who had terrible intentions towards him. I grabbed him and took him to the vet. I wasn't going to keep him but he wouldn't calm down around anyone else. He kind of owns us now."

Sophie laughed, "Isn't that the way? My cat took over my bed, and my clothes. She basically owns me. She harrases me when I'm trying to study. It's terrible, but I love her. Anyway. I can think of four big dogs we have here that would get along well with your dog. We've got a Husky, a Border Collie, A Rottweiler, and, I swear by my heart that she isn't dangerous, a pitbull."

This time it was Logan who spoke, "Could we look at all of them?"

Sophie grinned. "Right this way."

* * *

In the end, they ended up settling on the Husky. The Siberian Husky had piercing blue eyes and was named Alaska. It was a female, and was almost four years old. She was friendly and both brothers had fell in love with her the second their eyes landed on her. They had known that Carrow would love her too.

As Chris was signing the paperwork, he noticed Logan looking very smug, and cocked his head at him.

"I got Sophie's number." He explained quietly. Chris grinned. "Nice one!" He congratulated, giving his brother a nudge with his shoulder. Finishing up the paperwork and handing it to an elderly lady, he turned to his brother, raising his eyebrows suggestively.

Logan groaned, but Chris could see his shoulder shaking with laughter, even as his face remained blank. "Do you have a cruuuush?" Chris asked, smirking.

"Chris!" Logan hissed at him, but there was a hint of laughter in his voice.

"Aww! Little Logan has a crush!" Chris teased, and grunted when Logan slammed an elbow into side. Chris glared at Logan with no real heat. "You're going to pay for that you little shit." He warned, grabbing Logan in a headlock before he could run and ran his knuckles viciously over his little brother's scalp. He smirked as he let him go.

Logan was about to realitate when Sophie came over with a lead in her hand, Alaska happily connected to it. The husky all but ran over to them when she saw them, and both brothers knelt down.

Alaska affectionately headbutted the two of them and licked their faces. Chris laughed and pushed the dog's face away gently, and stood. Having already paid, he took the lead from Sophie.

"Thanks for your help." He said warmly to Sophie, smiling at the elderly lady behind the desk. Logan blushed slightly but echoed his thanks. They made their way out to the car, watching as Alaska used her new-found freedom to sniff everything in sight. Leading her to the car and triumphantly getting her up onto the seats, Chris begun to think that today, while being tiring for him, would be a really good day.

* * *

This, in my opinion, isn't the best chapter, but I couldn't manage to get it to come out right. I also figured that I should update some time. This chapter is unbeta-ed, so any mistakes are mine.


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